Beinn Bhreac, Lomondside

For a change Jazz and I headed north. With the major roads and motorway it is easier and faster to get into the Southern Highlands than getting to some places in South Ayrshire. This was our first trip up to the west side of Loch Lomond since it became a National Park. I had planned on re-doing a walk around Glen Luss that Cathy and I did in 1988 but the drive up the glen made us feel very unwelcome with “No parking”, “No dogs”, “No walkers” signs. Great pity that this lovely glen is full of such unfriendly people. So we headed to the next glen up: Glen Douglas.

We parked in a small car park at NS338979 and headed north along a track that soon entered some forestry. After a while the path gave up and we had to make our own route. After about 1.5km we decided to needed to gain some height. The hillside here is very steep and it was a hard slog for man+dog. Eventually we reached the small Lochain Uaine which made a lovely lunch stop with great views of Loch Lomond. The woodland here would be a noisy place in a month’s time when the summer migrants arrived.

Jazz on side of Beinn Bhreac looking at Loch Lomond

Lochan Uaine on Beinn Bhreac

Jazz at Lochain Uaine

Jazz on side of Beinn Bhreac

After lunch we headed up over rough grass and dead bracken 1 to leave the birch wood behind and up onto the open hill. The views along Loch Lomond started to open up here. The day was still and hazy so the scenery was atmospheric if a little limited in visibility. We eventually found a deer/sheep track that followed a gully up to the summit. Jazz spotted that there was a trig point and so applied a burst of speed to get there first. When I got there I had to agree that the view from the top was lovely.

North Loch Lomond from Beinn Bhreac

Jazz at summit of Beinn Bhreac

Looking south from Beinn Bhreac

Arrochar Alps from Beinn Bhreac

From the summit we headed south-west to drop down into Glen Douglas. We skirted some forestry and found a track that took us to the road and then a km to the car. It was a lovely day with some beautiful scenery from a vantage point that is by-passed by most people who instead are on the motorway heading up The Ben on the other side of the loch.

Notes:

This would not be fun in late summer when the bracken is fully grown. ↩